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Professor Jean Anil Louis-Juste
inspired his students and other
progressives working for social
change in Haiti
On the question of land and
peasants in Haiti, in another text
he wrote on April 30, 2002 entitled
“Community Development Projects
and Democracy in Peasant Organizations,”
Anil wrote: “Peasants face
a crisis in working the land, and it
makes us ask the question about
how the peasants reproduce their
labor force and their household. The
big landowners (grandon) take their
land, drain all the peasants’ wealth
into the cities, and then stab them
in the back. The exchange made
on the international market becomes
worse daily to the peasants’
disadvantage. They killed the Haitian
Creole pig which was the only
form of saving peasants had used
for a long time. All this shows the
problems peasants face in trying to
reproduce themselves. It is hard for
us to say who or what has become
the principal cause because they all
have an infl uence on the peasant’s
conduct and an effect on the environment.
In the 1920s, we had 20%
of the country covered with forest.
In the 1990s,we had less than 2%.
We are about 60% short of the land
we would need to live in equilibrium
with the environment. In any case,
the peasant’s labor does not allow
him to reproduce his household any
more; it is development work with
brings in a little something.”
Several professors, students,
peasant representatives, and work
comrades, both Haitian and foreign,
spoke at the memorial service about
who Anil was. Members of ASID,
GREPS, the Gramsci Circle, and other
organizations spoke about the memory
of this great fi ghter.
One of Anil’s collaborators in
the Department of Social Work told
how Anil did courses and workshops
on memory, social communication,
social policy, methodology on the intervention
of social work, and work
courses for social groups. He gave
all his time to train his students. He
used to participate in all the activities
that the Social Work Department
would do, helping the students with
their research and social work in several
parts of the country including
Archaie, Cabaret, the Artibonite, and
the Southeast.
For the sociology students at
the Ethnology School, Seide Gardy
(Kamileyon) wrote this about Anil’s
death: “Anil was an important leader
in the movement for the 200
gourdes [or $5 minimum daily
wage] waged in the university and
the the battle for reform at the Medical
School. He wanted to see real
change at the University, an end to
the formless and toothless reforms.
He wanted the University not to
be a collection of little kingdoms,
all small minded. In his courses,
he always showed that society
should be based on social equality
and have good living conditions for
people in the poor neighborhoods,
for peasants and people working in
factories. With Anil, the University
battle became very hot. He even
wanted to become Rector to see if he
could change the system. He didn’t
have little reactionary projects, little
shorts full of pockets. He wanted
change in capital letters. He worked
for that. He was not someone who
looked to be a star in the press. For
him, a good revolutionary does not
need to publicize himself.”
For that reason, the Ethnology
School’s administration took away
his courses on the pretext that he
was brainwashing his students. The
administration saw him as trouble.
Because of the type of person he
was, many plots were hatched in the
State to eliminate him from the University.
The presence of Anil threatened
many. One sector, the so-called
civil society (really the bourgeoisie)
threatened him after he and a band
of students entered a march to protect
the environment on the Champ
de Mars last year. They chanted:
“There can be no protected environmnet
if the lives of people are not
also protected, thus, there has to be
a 200 gourdes minimum salary.”
Several other professors, students,
collaborators and comrades
spoke about how Anil had collaborated
with them at the School.
Yves Marie, a representative of the
peasants of Cabaret, told about his
collaboration with Anil. The professor
had addressed the problems the
peasants face each day with the big
landowners, which involve keeping
and working their land. The peasants’
struggle is concrete and vital because
it involves their real-life struggles.
Meanwhile, the University students
face more of an ideological struggle,
a philosophical struggle, a struggle
of ideas. It is a battle to establish the
conditions for a socialist revolution in
Haiti. That was the main objective of
Professor Jean Anil Louis-Juste during
his life under Haiti’s sun. |
